Andrew has gone to his year 6 dinner dance tonight. It's his first official dance that isn't a school disco in the gym, complete with the requirement to be dressed in something slightly more formal than jeans and a shirt. To top it all off, I had totally forgotten that the dance was tonight when I was heading out the door for work, running late as usual, thinking of nothing but how to gather my wits before heading into the minefield.
You can probably guess where this is going right? That's right, the lament of women everywhere .. "But I haven't a thing to wear to the ball!" .. except in this case it was "Mum, I haven't got any pants that fit and my shirt is a bit short too!" Darn kids! Who keeps giving them permission to grow??
So after a mad dash around at work in my non-existent lunch break, I managed to put together a couple of outfits for his approval, with the intent of taking the unwanted ones back for a refund tomorrow. Of course, he liked them all so then we had the saga of what to wear and what to return.
"That shirt goes with these pants, but I like the other shirt better. Does it look OK with those pants?" etc.
I swear this child is channeling Trinny and Suzannah or maybe Carson Kressley half the time! The other half the time, he couldn't care less if 'this goes with that.' (name that commercial ..)
Once 'we' had finally decided on a outfit, it was time to get ready, pick up Ryan and head out for the 60km round trip to drop them off for the three hour event. There was a lot of silence in the back of the car, especially when I asked if they were going to dance with any girls! They were both just sitting there like a deer in headlights, too stunned to move. Aah, to be young and terrified again .. NOT!
Once we got there, the boys met up with the rest of their group of friends before heading into the function room en masse .. there's safety in numbers you know! It was the strangest feeling watching him walk into the function room that was filled with girls in their finery; shades of things to come, I guess. It just brought home to me how much he's growing up even though he's still small physically. It's all in the perception isn't it?
I popped in for a quick look around and saw that the girls were all huddled down one end whispering and giggling about the boys playing the fool down the other end of the room. Quite a few boys had the deer-in-the-headlights look while looking at the girls but of course, none of them were brave enough to approach the girls, especially not with some of the parents still there! (I don't really blame them .. some of those dads looked pretty scary!)
I left them to it to go home and feed the other two but the whole time he was gone, the mother in me was wondering if he had enough to eat, if he even liked what there was to eat and if he was enjoying himself. The scrapbooker in me was wondering whether he would take more than the two photos that Alex took at his dinner dance and hoping they weren't too blurry to do anything with. Priorities people!
I thought he would be very quiet and tired when he got home (at 10:15pm) so I was surprised when he bounded in the door, full of the joys of life, and said "Hi Mum. I have to pee. Be right back!" Once that all important task was taken care of, he came and curled up in my lap to give me a rundown of the evening's events. I'm happy to report that yes he did have enough to eat (photos of them at the table, eating), he liked most of the things that were available to eat (photos of some of the available food) and he really enjoyed himself (seemingly by laughing at everyone else!). There was even dancing .. and I have a photo to prove it. (I actually have 22 photos in all of which about 10 of them should make a great page.)
The dancing photo is of two friends (both boys) dancing together ballroom style. Apparently, most of the boys danced with each other like that until the teachers organised them into a snowball dance. Andrew thought he had escaped dancing with a girl but then his PE teacher asked him to dance, "which was kind of embarrassing for her, because she's a lot taller than me!" No mention as to whether he was worried about dancing with a teacher .. we'll tackle that one later! Then he jumped up to get changed into his pj's and go to the toilet again (how much did you drink child?) before heading for bed.
Just as I was sitting, feeling sorry for myself and thinking that my second baby is almost all 'growed up', he came back, curled up on my lap, gave me a great big hug and a kiss and said "It was fun but I missed you. Can I have some more hugs before I go to bed?" With that, my heart melted and I remembered that some things never change .. much.
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